Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Roy Roundup 11/10

I have a feeling this is going to be a recurring post here at MLBastian throughout this offseason. With a weak pitching market, and the Jays in a transition period, ace Roy Halladay will have plenty of suitors.

Monday marked Day 1 of the GM Meetings in Chicago — the Winter Meetings’ little brother. There is no shortage of rumors and reports and a handful out right now deal with Doc.

You probably won’t be seeing many quotes from rookie GM Alex Anthopoulos. He’s trying to keep quiet when it comes to rumors and reports — a different approach than former Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi. That won’t stop the speculation, or halt other sources from offering up some information.

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A package of Buchholtz, Lowrie and Bard works for me, although LA could offer Aybar as the key component. One way or the other as thin as the free agent market is for pitching, AA is definitely holding a royal flush..

The main thing that complicates things is that Doc does not want out of Toronto – he wants to play for a team with an excellent chance of winning. This will reduce the number of teams he would agree to be traded too, thus reducing his trade value. Obviously, DOC has to go. The other GMs know this. Thus, I would be very surprised if Antho does not receive one low-ball offer after another. I just hope that one team makes a significant offer, forcing the others to follow suite.

Multiple reports have it that the Red Sox made a four-year, $60 million offer to left fielder Jason Bay, though general manager Theo Epstein has not confirmed that. But if the Sox don’t retain Bay, the main power-hitting outfielder available is Matt Holliday, who is represented by Scott Boras.

Although I’m glad for Jason Bay to receive this type of contract, I’m also real glad we’re not the ones offering it to him.

The way the playoffs unfolded this season, I think a lot of teams may have felt that they really ‘missed the boat’ on trading for Halladay. The Dodgers, Rockies, Red Sox and most certainly the Phillies could have used his services. It must have left a handful of those clubs front offices wondering ‘what if?’

J.P. said himself that he wasn’t getting the offers! I honestly, didn’t know why were not throwing the farm to get Halladay? For the Phillies, no doubt Halladay would have been more of a force than Pedro’s 85 MPH craftiness in the playoffs. If I were them, I would have given the Jays Dominic Brown, Kyle Drabek and J.A. Happ for Roy Halladay in a second. Apparently, we were only offered any ONE of those guys, along with some mid-level prosects. Two Halladay complete games in the World Series, wins it for the Phils. We all know he is capable of it. As Jays fans, we see the guy do it time and again in ‘big’ games. Lee + Halladay anchoring that rotation would have been deadly!

That said, I definately agree that this offseason teams may/SHOULD be rethinking what they would do to get Halladay. He should have ‘plenty of suitors’ agreed, the way teams ‘missed the boat’ on him at the deadline in ’09. Just silly, in my opinion.

From SI.com: The world champion Yankees will inquire about superstar pitcher Roy Halladay, setting up a potential bidding competition that didn’t exist last summer when now-deposed Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi made it clear he wanted to avoid trading Halladay within the division.

**This is bound to set off a bidding contest for Halladay. There’s no way the Red Sox, Phillies or Angels can allow Halladay to go to the Yanks or it means they’ve simply giving the Yanks the series in 2010. I suspect Boston particularly to be very aggressive, since they already have a problem with starters; of course so does LA, particularly if Lackey signs elsewhere.

I hope that the news regarding the Yanks is true. It could turn out to be the best Christmas present the Jays could have hoped to receive. All we require is a short “feeding frenzy” started by the Yanks to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

I’m sure it’s true. If nothing else NY want to drive up the price for either the Phillies, Dodgers or Red Sox and particularly the Red Sox. On the other hand if Pettite doesn’t come back the Yanks need another starter, AJ Burnett has not been all that great for them and they now recognize he is nothing but a .500 pitcher who can’t stand the heat.

TORONTO ( Canadian Press) — The Toronto Blue Jays continued to remake their scouting department by hiring four new people and promoting three others on Thursday.

Joining the club are Gary Rajsich as professional crosschecker, Brandon Mozley as a regional crosschecker, Brian Parker as a professional scout and Dan Cox as an area scout. Tom Burns, Dan Cholowsky and Matt Briggs were promoted to regional crosscheckers.

Rajsich was a pro scout with the Texas Rangers the past three seasons and spent 12 years with the Boston Red Sox before that.

Mozley rejoins the Blue Jays after three seasons with the Chicago Cubs. He signed top prospect Travis Snider during his first stint in Toronto.

Parker had been director of baseball operations for the Washington Nationals, assisting in all areas of team business. He was co-ordinator of scouting during Montreal’s final season in 2004.

Cox served as an area scout for the Minnesota Twins from 2005-08 and the Atlanta Braves this year. He’ll be responsible for scouting Southern California and Hawaii.

Burns has been with the Blue Jays since 2004 and has signed several players currently in the system, most notably lefty Brett Cecil.

Briggs also joined the club in 2004 and signed leading prospects J.P. Arencibia, Brad Emaus and 2009 first-rounder Chad Jenkins.

Cholowsky joined the Blue Jays in 2006 and players he’s signed include lefty Brad Mills.

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